Raid/PvE Demonic Impulse Shadowhunter : Shadowhunter Build Guide

Build Details & Information

Hello! I am Brother Chris and I have been playing Lost Ark since its western release in February 2022. This is meant to be an introductory guide to quickly get you up to speed for a raid/pve Demonic Impulse Shadowhunter so you can spend less time reading and more time ripping and tearing your foes.

Class Introduction

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Demonic Impulse is one of the few transformation classes in the game. It's gameplay revolves around casting skills to build your demon gauge in human form so you can transform and get access to an array of powerful demonic skills. Demonic Impulse is a very 'press whatever' class, in that there is a loose priority but for the most part if you press whatever skill lights up you're good to go. It is a very satisfying class visually and it has some pretty solid audio to go with it. It is also important to note that you only need TWO gems on Demonic Impulse - those being DAMAGE and CDR gems for DEMON SKILLS

Pros Strong early game Quick movement Straightforward to play Great counter ability

Cons Late game scaling is lacking Little damage outside of demon form

Rotation

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Demonic Impulse has a very loose rotation, hinging more on a priority system than anything. You want to prioritize Demon Vision in human form as it is your biggest demon gauge generator. It's very imperative you try to make sure the majority of your Demon Vision lands as depending on your Specialization amounts you may need to wait for cooldowns if too much of it misses.

An optimal start of fight rotation would look something like this.

Pre transformation

1. Howl
2. Demon's Grip
3. Decimate
4. Demon Vision
5. Thrust Impact
6. Demonic Clone

That will allow you to transform if you have mid level gauge tripods and some Wealth runes equipped.

Post transformation

1. Ruining Rush
2. Blood Massacre
3. Leaping Blow
4. Destruction
5. Death Claw
6. Gore Bleeding
7. Ruining Rush

After this it becomes much more priority based, you want to try and use Blood Massacre ASAP, as you're able to get 3 off in 1 transformation cycle at absolute maximum - depending on your stats and gems, and naturally this is your highest hitting ability. Ruining Rush and Death Claw are your synergy abilities so try and hit those first before you do any big Blood Massacre or Leaping Blow. Aside from prioritizing your Blood Massacre and Leaping Blow you pretty much just cycle between whatever skill is off cooldown, a very chill and relaxing press whatever lights up playstyle.

Engravings

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I run one of the generally considered meta engraving setups for Demonic Impulse, that being said there a few other meta choices you can make for your build and it's utlimately all up to your preference.

Engraving priority would be something like Demonic Impulse > Grudge > Adrenaline > Keen Blunt Weapon > Hit Master

Hit Master is chosen because I personally dislike Raid Captain and Cursed Doll has diminished effects combined with Adrenaline and it has a downside while Hit Master does not - however it does have a downside of your awakening skill doing less damage which is precisely why I use my awakening skill for utility (gauge filling/super armor) instead of damage, Gate of Eruption is great for a quick transform button if you miss Demon Vision for example. If you want to scale your awakening damage and/or use Fallen Ruin you can feel free to swap Hit Master for either Raid Captain if you're swift secondary or Cursed Doll.

Stats

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Demonic Impulse has two real builds here, today in this build I'm running spec/swift as I enjoy the leniency on the decreased cooldown + extra movement speed. It feels good to me and I like this. The other option is spec/crit and you would run a different relic set.

Specialization: 1700
Swiftness: 550

Is what I have on my Demonic Impulse Shadowhunter, this is with relic accessories and a bracelet and all potions unlocked from horizontal content.

Relic Set

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For Spec/swift Demonic Impulse we choose Hallucination as our relic set because we need to make up for the crit we are lacking by not choosing crit as our secondary stat. It also boosts our damage which is always good. If you choose to go spec/crit the relic set you choose will be Salvation.

Tripods

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For Demonic Impulse the only tripods you care about are the ones the increase your demonic gauge gain. Encroaching Power, Encroaching Power, and encroaching-power-demons-vision. Get these tripods as high as you can as it makes your life much easier and lets you 1 skill cycle transform.

Skills

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Pretty much no worthwhile skill changes for Demonic Impulse as human form solely exists to generate meter to transform into your demon form.

You can however use whichever awakening you want like we discussed earlier - Fallen Ruin for more damage and Gate of Eruption for meter gain

Runes

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For runes on our demon skills what I run is this

Ruining Rush - Rage (Legendary)
Death Claw - Quick Recharge (Epic)
Destruction - Bleed (Legendary)
Gore Bleeding - Galewind (Epic)
Leaping Blow - Galewind (Epic)
Blood Massacre - Galewind (Legendary)

Card Sets

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For card set our best is going to be Light of Salvation at 18 awakening or higher, if you don't have that you can feel free to use whatever as a sub - namely Lostwind Cliff or Field Boss II